upersad

I am looking for suggestions for an audio shield/alternative board for a simple percussion musical instrument I am designing. There will be 30 or so isolated piezo sensors to detect knocks/strikes. I am thinking of using a Mux shield (http://mayhewlabs.com/products/arduino-mux-shield) to handle all the inputs, and I want to trigger samples (velocity sensitive) through an audio shield with an output 3.5mm jack where I can connect speakers or headphones. Any suggestions for this functionality will be appreciated.

marcelloblue

I don't think you need to play 30 different sounds at once, unless you have 30 hands to play 30 different percussion pads! I'm assuming you can play 2 sounds =2 hands at once.You should additionally consider that when you hit a percussion the sound could overlap the tail of the sample that is currently played (if any).I never wrotecode for DSPs, but that's probably what you need to do.

And this board could be the right one: http://www.openmusiclabs.com/2011/08/arduino-audio-codec-shield/

If you write good code, please share.

I'm building a drum kit that I will connect via MIDI to a PC for the generation of sounds. If you find a good solution, my drum kit could become a stand alone device!

upersad

Thanks, I'll check it out the board. I am looking for a standalone solution rather than the ability to connect to an external MIDI module or computer so that the instrument would be self contained with all sounds stored on board.

Fine, you do know it is a DSP not a generator so it will not synthesise sounds. Then it will only process them one sound at a time so are you going to have 32 of them?

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I am looking for a standalone solution rather than the ability to connect to an external MIDI module or computer so that the instrument would be self contained with all sounds stored on board.

I think you are missing the point. What ever you do you will have to build into your instrument a sound generating board. It can be quick and easy like MIDI or is can be difficult and expensive, like anything else. At the end of the day either way you end up with a box that sound comes out of.

upersad

I have a set of pre-recorded sound samples that I am using. The way I see it, there is a difference between a controller and and a "stand alone" instrument. Using protocols such as MIDI and OSC, data can be sent out of a controller which will leave the actual playing of the sounds to another device (computer, sound module etc.). Conversely, the sound generation could be done using on-board electronics and all a user has to do is connect an audio jack to speakers. It is like the difference between a MIDI controller and a regular electronic keyboard. Of course, you can do both in one instrument.

I am looking for a low cost way of doing an electronic instrument where you can just plug in speakers. For example, I found the Rugged Audio Shield (http://ruggedcircuits.com/html/rugged_audio_shield.html), but unfortunately there aren't any available at the moment. So I am trying to find other options that will do the job.